When I first read the synopsis I thought this is one of those manga series where a lucky guy gets transported to another world and gets himself a harem. While it may not be so far-fetched, this series turns into a different monster
The MC is an asshole. Totally. He used to be a high school bully with an alpha male sense where the thought that he can rule over those around him. Little did he knew that as an adult all that meant nothing and he quickly became the trash of society. Frustrated that those who once he bullied now have to power to rule over him, he gets in one of those mysterious accidents and wakes up on an island in a parallel world. On this island he meets the inhabitants which seem to be peace loving people, not knowing what terms like 'possession' or 'violence' mean, and which all their needs are met - which is the reason why erratic behaviors so common in our society do not exist in their society. Basically, if stuff like property, money and leadership do not exist, nobody can take advantage of yourself, everything available is free for everyone to use and share, including their own selves. They eat when they are hungry, they sleep when they are sleepy and they have sex when they are horny. And since possessiveness is foreign for them, they do not care how many partners they have in their sexual intercourse.
The MC comes from a world where social hierarchy, property possession, violence and all sorts of erratic behaviors are accepted and considered normal. A side-effect of the society they built. So naturally, he could not fit in the new environment without imposing his own views and ideas over the natives. First, he damages the harmony those elves had with the animals from the island. By slaughtering them for their meat, both him and the elves pretty much begin to revolt against nature itself. Nature provided them food without the need to hunt. The temptation of meat lures them into the MC's schemes, allowing him to impose conditions on the elves such as the women not having other partners than him or convincing males to turn against each other. In the first chapter he even kills a male that took his turn to the MC's first sexual partner and then killing a girl that saw his dead body. Talk about being sick.
As the story progresses, the MC becomes a sort of tribe leader. The brutal killing of a guy that tried to kill him (for good reason) yet instead killed his significant other instilled fear into the natives, making some of them join him, others ignoring him yet accepting him and others that tried to go against him. He gave property to those loyal to him, while turning into slaves those who 'stole' from their property. And the most barbaric thing of all, he made them fight each other and play death games with them.
There is clearly something philosophical going on in this series. It shows how a foreigner with different values can damage a perfect society. In a way it applies to our reality as well, although no society in our world is a perfect one. Newcomers from different parts of this world infuse new values and new behavior patterns upon the natives which in most cases damages the well being of the natives and their social relations. Europe is the biggest example of how foreign people with vastly different values and culture can affect a society. As they grow in number and they influence more people with their behavior, their way of life becomes accepted as something normal and the natives are forced to change their way of living. In the case of this series, you see how an utopia can turn into a tyranny. The only problem is that a society governed by individualism, violence, fear and oppression does not guarantee the safety of even the one who rules it. You will never know when someone will use the same means as he used to replace him, to be the one who rules over the others. And this cycle is perpetuated.
From a technical point of view, the art is gorgeous and although the character development is interesting, I cannot hide the fact that I hate where this series is going. Despotism is not something that I admire especially when it ruins a society ruled by values that we came to think they are utopias (in our own paradigm, who dares to believe that this world can be turned into a peace-loving one with no violence and no impulses such as money or property that causes most of the corruption and criminal cases?). Now, I am not a commie, however even those who formulated the rules of capitalism knew that property and money are the root cause of human erratic behavior. Most of the criminal cases in this world are money related and that is a direct consequence of inequality, which concepts like monetary value and property directly causes.
I was enthusiastic after reading the first couple of chapters. I thought that this would be a series where a loser gets his harem, live in harmony and bla bla, but how it turned out is something I completely dislike. Trampling over the will and well being of other people is something I condone in real life and I surely do not want it to be depicted in its greatest splendor in a manga series. After all, I think we all seek in these fictional world stuff that cannot be obtained in the real one. The fantasy of a perfect world, of our preferred world which we cannot achieve. So yeah, my rating is 4.
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